THE KERRY WAY - PART TWO

It is a good thing we had our day of rest mid-hike.  (We walked 10 miles on our rest day, so it wasn't a relax and stay off your feet rest day, but still a good break from the trail.)

Day Five of The Kerry Way proved to be a very long day.  We were on the remote trail for approximately nine hours yet the distance was only 14.7 miles according to my trusty device.  It was slow going.  The first five miles took us 3 1/2 hours, as we trampled along the soggy mountain ridge line with our mud-caked heavy boots.  We passed several stiles within the first hour, so I decided to count them today. 

One of our first stiles.  Maybe it's stile #9.

It proves to be a challenge for me to be mindful of my footsteps so as not to sink my feet into the mud and cow dung.

A typical section of the trail.  Notice all the crowds. 

I traipse along.  Often, I trounce the heather to avoid the mud.

Merrily, we roll along.

We aren't exactly making good time.  The stiles really do slow you down.  First, Gerry goes over the stile.  Then I hand off my hiking poles to him, so I can go over the stile and grab hold of the rail post.  Often, the steps are slick, so caution is advised.

Gerry is about to cross the 37th stile of the day. 

But, the scenery is lovely.  I can't argue with that.  Views are spectacular, even without the sunshine.  We've been told repeatedly that this August has been unseasonably wet and cold.

A glimpse of the lake in the distance, after we reach yet another false summit.

Every day we see far more animals than humans.

The cow of the day.

We grow weary.  We've now climbed over 45 stiles, but the town of Waterville is in sight.

Getting close.

Finally, we arrive at our "home" for the night, Clifford's Bed & Breakfast.  It is 6:30 pm, and we climbed 53 stiles today.  Our friendly hostess Abby showed us to our wonderful room with an ocean view.

Happy to be here. 

We ask Abbey, "What's the best place in town for fish and chips?"  She highly recommends the restaurant at The Butler Arms hotel.  We take her up on it.  Sure enough, it is the best fish and chips of our trip.

Enjoying a pint along with our fish and chips.

After dinner, it is a lovely walk back to our B& B.  I like being near the ocean.

Sunset in Waterville.

We have a choice on Day Six. We can either take the 8-mile coastal route from Waterville to Caherdaniel, or we can take the challenging inland route of 14 miles, which includes a steep climb to Windy Gap.  We opt for the inland route. Why not?  We have all day.

This ends up being one of our favorite days on the trail!  We saw not a soul until the final mile as we approached town. It wasn't as soggy as Day Five, and we were able to make pretty good time.  We did get slightly lost at the beginning, but it was no big deal.  (Our guide book, The Kerry Way by Sandra Bardwell, has led us astray more than once.  We've found it best to ignore the book and just follow the yellow arrows along the route.) 

The first stile of the day.  There were only 15 today.

We pass fields of sheep with the lake in the background.  It's your typical rural Irish countryside.

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One ewe in particular stands out and begs us to take her picture.

I see ewe.

Pretty purple flowers catch our eye.

Beauty abounds.

We begin our gradual ascent as we walk above the Lough Currane.

Lough Currane.

Then the fun begins as it is no longer a gradual ascent, but a rather steep climb.  We pace ourselves and enjoy the scenery.  We follow the trail markers and head toward them, taking the driest route we can negotiate. 

Moving right along!

We reach a lush green meadow before the final push to Windy Gap.

Gerry takes it all in.

It was a challenge, but we reach the summit of Windy Gap quicker than we anticipated. We're a bit out of breath, but it really wasn't as difficult as we had expected.

At the summit, right as the fog rolls in.

We begin our descent in a dense fog.  Difficult to see the yellow arrows, but fortunately we are on a fairly well-defined path.

Poor visibility the next hour.

The fog begins to clear as we walk across lovely flowery boulder fields.

We appreciate this pretty bouquet.

It clouds up and we get another shower as we approach the town of Caherdaniel.

The final picture of our favorite hiking day!

We have been happy with Camino Ways directions for our B&Bs.  It's been pretty straightforward finding our way to our lodging. The only exception was today, Day Six.  Our directions indicated, "Turn left on the road and you will find your accommodation on the right after 400 meters."  It was faulty information.  Instead, we were faced with a three mile walk in the rain along a busy road to reach the Scarriff Inn.  Once again, thank goodness for our terrific rain ponchos!

Day Seven we predicted to be a relatively easy day.  We arranged for a cab to take us back to the trail head at Caherdaniel.  No way did we want to repeat the walk along the dangerous road. Our hike was in two sections, Caherdaniel to Staigue (4 miles) and then from Staigue to Sneem (8 miles.)  We added another couple miles because we decided to take the recommended side-trip at Staigue to visit an old stone fort, built in the early centuries AD.

View from dining room of Scarriff Inn this morning at breakfast

We start the day as usual, walking past a herd of sheep.

Typical morning scenery.

The trail isn't even too muddy for a change.  It was a bit misty at times, but we never did have to don our rain ponchos.

Gerry on the colorful trail.  Staying nice and dry.

Cows are very cooperative when we take their pictures.  We come across three cows in a poke.

You can barely see the head of the white cow in the middle.

The detour to Staigue stone fort was worth while.

Approaching the fort.

A stone wall six meters high and four meters thick is built entirely without mortar.  It encloses an area of 30 meters in diameter.

Gerry stands along the interior wall of the fort.

Back on the trail, we encounter an ancient, beautiful bridge.

The bridge of the day. 

We walk pass a lovely stone house with geraniums in the window.

An older gentleman waves at us as we walk by.

Although today was a relatively easy day, no day is a total cake walk.

Overlooking the river on our final approach to Sneem.

I am glad we are staying far from the madding crowd, at the Sneem River Lodge, about a half-mile from the town center.  As we walked into Sneem, we saw at least three large tour buses.  Sneem is a cute and tidy town, so I do see the attraction.  It is a popular tourist stop on the Ring of Kerry.

Sneem River Lodge.  Our bedroom is top right. 

We take showers and then head into town for dinner at D O'Shea, which came highly recommended, and rightly so!

The best restaurant in town.

Although there was live music at D O-Shea, we passed on staying for it.  A scheduled 19 mile walk awaits us tomorrow and I am too old to burn the candle on both ends as I did yester-year in my youth.

Day Eight was our trek from Sneem to Kenmare.  We began our walk at 9:00 am and finished shortly after 7:00 pm.  It was not our fault we received bonus miles.  The guide book was wrong.  The last 8.5 km stage was actually an 8.5 mile stage, plus it was very slow going and muddy as can be.   We survived our longest day of The Kerry Way, 23 miles!  The sun doesn't set until 8:30 pm and the pubs serve food until 9:00 pm, so who cares if we arrive in Kenmare at 7:00 pm instead of 5:00 pm?  (I did for a while toward the end of our hike, when I started to get whiny, I confess.)

Within the first hour, we walked past Brushwood Studios, run by the Muller family who moved here from South Africa in the 1970s.  We were too early to visit the art studio, but we were able to view their sea kayaks, which they built and display in front of their interesting looking house.

The Muller residence is off the beaten path.  The art studio is behind their house.

Within minutes we are back on the trail with nary a house in sight.

We don't need our sunglasses today.  What's new?

We make our way through a lush, green forest.

It's easy walking here.

This terrain is ideal for fungi.

We rise above a lake, and reach our landmark, BlackWater Bridge, after 8 miles of walking.

So far, so good. 

We cross the bridge, and peer down at the river below.

I don't see any fish in this river.

A few miles later, an ancient stone church comes into view.  Today is Sunday, but I don't think there is a mass or other church service taking place here. 

No signs of a congregation.

Gerry meets a new friend and offers him the bruised apple from my backpack.

Usually we don't feed the animals.  This is the one exception.

Gerry also befriends an adorable Shetland pony.

No people, but fine looking animals today.

We faced two very steep climbs over soggy terrain the final five miles of our hike. It seemed to take forever.  My boots were covered with cow dung and mud, but at least neither of us took a mud bath, which was a very likely possibility this afternoon, especially as we started to tire and lose some of our coordination.

And, then, finally we arrive in lovely Kenmare, which is often referred to as the jewel on the Ring of Kerry.

Kenmare is a welcome sight after a 23-mile day.

Our hotel, the Coachmans was smack in the center of town.  It was another clean and comfortable place.  We quickly showered and were ready to visit their pub for a cold frosty beer before dinner.

Home sweet home for the night.

It is always bittersweet to me when I reach the last day of a long trek.  Part of me wants to continue the daily routine of hiking from one town or village to the next, with none of the stresses of my normal day-to-day life.  It's a marvelous experience to reconnect with nature, and to challenge myself.  Every day is special.

Day Nine, our final day, went according to plan.  It was a 16.5 mile day with no wrong turns and no unexpected surprises.  In fact, the final stretch of 8 or 9 miles brought us through Killarney National Park once again, and was a retrace of our walk through the Park on Stage One, but in the opposite direction.

There's nothing like a plate of scrambled eggs with Kenmare salmon to start the day!  We also helped ourselves to granola and yogurt.

Delicious!

Our route takes us by Holy Cross Catholic Church, a church of fine architecture that sits at the top of town.

Holy Cross Catholic Church.

We pass only a few more houses before we leave the outskirts of Kenmare and head for the hills.

A multi-bedroom house, with a horse.

We have a long uphill along a country road, followed by an even steeper ascent in the mountains.  Unlike yesterday, most of our climbing is in the first half of the hike while we are relatively fresh.

It looks a bit intimidating. 

We arrive at a waterfall, mid-hike, right before it starts to get quite wet.

Final minutes before I don my bright blue poncho for the rest of the day.

We enjoy seeing Torc waterfalls once again.

One final picture before it is entirely too wet for cameras.

Our last day was one of few pictures, because of the weather.  We began our walk in a mist, which turned into a drizzle for most of the walk.  The final five miles we experienced a good solid rain.  I am glad this is the only day we experienced such wet weather.

All in all, we had pretty good weather on our 148.8 mile, 9-day trek.

I'm glad we are staying in Killarney three nights.  It is Monday evening when we arrive at the lovely Larkinley Lodge, located a quarter mile uphill from the center of downtown Killarney.  We'll be the guests of Toni and Danny until Thursday morning, when we leave Ireland and return home to Los Angeles.